Sadie Jones has written a very assured debut and, in her protagonist Lewis Aldridge, created an impressively sympathetic portrait of a troubled teenager. Nineteen-year-old Lewis leaves Brixton prison, buys some new clothes and travels to his father’s house in rural Surrey, where he is cautiously accepted back. The novel then cuts to 1945, when seven-year-old Lewis and his mother, Elizabeth, greet his father, Gilbert, who has just returned from the war. Village life finally returns to normal. Lewis’s strict father goes back to his job, working for the local businessman Mr Charmichael, while his adored mother counts the minutes in the day until having a drink doesn’t seem too unseemly.
One day, while swimming, Elizabeth dies. Lewis’s unbearable grief is all but ignored, and he’s left utterly bereft and alone. The enormous pressure on him to conform socially is too much, and he finds solace in neat gin and self-harm. Misunderstood by his father and goaded by the almost comically evil Mr Charmichael, his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic until he is sent to prison. Following his return, Mr Charmichael’s two daughters and Gilbert’s new wife, Alice, try to understand the difficult young man, but they too are trapped in a desperate situation and bound by the strict rules governing the conduct of ‘nice people’.
Jones brilliantly evokes a small world of rigid social constraints – of the embarrassments of not being seen to be perfectly correct. It’s a world where, on the outside, everything looks as conservative and safe as its inhabitants want it to be; but scratch the surface and alcoholism, child abuse and domestic violence cut devastating paths through people’s lives. Lewis becomes terribly damaged, but through Jones’ careful handing, we understand and forgive his violence and fury.
The novel is very filmic – it would make an excellent television play – and though the ending is a bit drawn out, it’s an extremely satisfying read.
